Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Follow Up (From Dave Price)


Buckles36, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

I wonder if there's some connection between Sidney Rink's Ham Tree Mule act and the McIntyre and Heath production of the same name?

This 1913 Strobridge one-sheet of the revival of their "Biggest Musical Comedy Success" is a dandy, although my photography leaves a bit to be desired.

Posted by Buckles at 10/28/2009 05:55:00 AM

2 comments:

Chris Berry said...

This litho is indeed a gem (and to my eye the photograph looks pretty good too). Once again Ol' Whitey brings up a great question - and while I can't provide the definitive answer - it certainly would appear that there was at least what we would now call a "pop-culture" connection between the success of this blackface musical set (in part) in a livery stable and Sidney Rick, an African-American animal trainer from the same era. Here is what I can tell you - along with a little associated Broadway history: This particular poster is for a 1913 oad-show revival of a musical that first opened in August 1905 at the New York Theatre at the corner of Broadway and 44th Street (where Good Morning America's Times Square studios now exist). The three-act full-length evening show was based on a McIntyre & Heath's blackface vaudeville routine and starred the producers themselves (James McIntyre as "Alexander Hambletonian" - a livery stable worker who is lured from North Carolina to New York and Thomas Heath- as "Henry Jones"). The original McIntyre and Heath sketch dates back to about 1874 and McIntyre claimed that his material came to him first-hand when he was traveling with a small wagon circus in Dixie during the years immediately following the Civil War. In any event the comedy act continued which virtually no change until 1905 when it was put to music and became a three-act play. Incidentally, the original 1905 production, along with a revival of the show a year later (in 1906) featured the juggling of a very young W.C. Fields as "Sherlock Baffles" - though I'm not sure whether Fields performed in blackface. After the Broadway production closed there was a road-show of the production in both 1906-07 and 1913 (for which Strobridge evidently produced your lithograph). Although Sidney Rink didn't appear as a listed member of the original Broadway cast - it is possible that he was involved in the show at some point after - and prior to joining Al G. Barnes in the early 'teens. In any event "The Ham Tree" was a very popular road show of the era, and it would seem that a "January Act" - like the one that Sidney Rink had - would want to align itself with the success of a musical with the same name.

29 October, 2009 19:31
Ole Whitey said...

Thanks, Chris.

Glad to get all that info.

29 October, 2009 22:09

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